(Berlin, September 17, 2026) \u2013 The convictions of\u00a0Kosovo\u2019s former President Hashim Tha\u00e7i and three senior former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders for war crimes on September 16, 2026, are an important step toward accountability for victims of the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict, Human Rights Watch said today.\u00a0
The\u00a0Kosovo Specialist Chambers, based in The Hague, found Tha\u00e7i, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi\u00a0guilty of war crimes including murder, torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention. The court acquitted the four men on charges of crimes against humanity. The convictions were for crimes committed during the war in Kosovo and northern Albania, against Kosovo Albanians, Serbs, Roma, and others. The court sentenced Tha\u00e7i and Krasniqi to 25 years, Veseli to 18 years, and Selimi to 13 years in prison.
\u201cThis verdict sends an important message to victims and their families that even powerful leaders are not beyond the reach of justice,\u201d said\u00a0Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe court\u2019s findings underscore that accountability for serious wartime crimes should apply to everyone, regardless of their position or affiliation.\u201d
The judgment documents the scale and severity of the abuses. The judges found that between April 1998 and June 20, 1999, the defendants were criminally responsible for the arbitrary arrest and detention of 385 people at KLA detention sites, the torture of 303 people, the cruel treatment of 49 people, and the murder of 96 people. The victims included Kosovo Albanians perceived as political opponents or collaborators, as well as Serbs and Roma.\u00a0
The judges found that the accused shared a common criminal purpose to target, detain, and if necessary, kill perceived opponents of the KLA, which sought independence from Serbia. They found that the four men worked together to implement the criminal plan, including through detention facilities, military police, intelligence structures, and special units.\u00a0
The court acquitted all four defendants of the six crimes against humanity charges, finding that the prosecution had not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the specific acts were \u201cdirected against a civilian population:\u201d one of the required elements to establish crimes against humanity, in addition to the acts being part of a widespread or systematic attack. The court also found the four men not guilty in relation to a number of other alleged war crimes incidents, which it found were either not proven beyond reasonable doubt, absorbed by another more specific charge, or outside the court\u2019s jurisdiction. The latter included alleged incidents after June 20, 1999, when the court found that the armed conflict had ended and the conduct could therefore not qualify as war crimes.
The judges stressed that the KLA itself was not on trial and that the case was not about the legitimacy of the KLA\u2019s struggle, the crimes Serbian and Yugoslav forces committed against Kosovo Albanians, or an effort to balance crimes committed by one side against those committed by another. The judgment concerned the individual criminal responsibility of the four defendants for specific crimes against Serbs, Roma, and Kosovo Albanians.
The judges said that the trial had taken place in a \u201cclimate of witness intimidation.\u201d The court said some witnesses had lied before the judges or changed previous accounts, and that fear for their safety may have affected some testimony. Separately, Tha\u00e7i faces a second case, along with four others, before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers for alleged\u00a0obstruction of justice.\u00a0
The judgment comes against a wider backdrop of incomplete accountability for crimes committed during the Kosovo conflict, including crimes committed by Serbian and Yugoslav forces, Human Rights Watch said.\u00a0
As Human Rights Watch has documented, Serbian and Yugoslav forces were responsible for\u00a0systematic and widespread crimes, during the conflict including torture, killings, rape, and forced expulsions.
At the senior level, former\u00a0Serbian President Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107 and, in separate trials, seven other\u00a0high-ranking Serbian and Yugoslav officials were\u00a0tried at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. One man was acquitted and six were convicted; Milo\u0161evi\u0107 died during his trial. Some Serbian and Yugoslav officials convicted by the United Nations tribunal have subsequently been\u00a0publicly celebrated in Serbia, underscoring the continuing need for political leaders in Serbia and the region to acknowledge established facts about wartime crimes and support accountability for them.
At the domestic level, Serbian courts have\u00a0convicted 17 individuals by final judgment for war crimes related to Kosovo, including 15 Serbs. Domestic prosecutions in Serbia have largely focused on lower-level perpetrators rather than senior military or police officials. For the vast majority of war crimes, however, no one has been held to account. The September 16 ruling should spur renewed efforts to deliver justice for all the victims of the Kosovo war, Human Rights Watch said.\u00a0
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers\u00a0has jurisdiction over crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other crimes under Kosovo law related to allegations made in a\u00a02010 Council of Europe report. Dick Marty, the Swiss senator who wrote it, said in the report that some senior former members of the KLA were responsible for abductions, beatings, and summary executions during and after the war. Human Rights Watch\u00a0documented post-war attacks on Serbs and Roma.\u00a0
Based on the Council of Europe report, the European Union, with strong support from the United States, created the\u00a0Special Investigative Task Force (SITF), based in Brussels with an international staff, to investigate the allegations. The task force\u2019s lead prosecutor\u00a0presented his findings in 2014, including on witness intimidation, and concluded there were credible grounds to issue indictments.
After Kosovo\u00a0amended its constitution and introduced a\u00a0new law in 2015, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers was created, based in The Hague with funding from the EU, as well as from Canada, Norway, Switzerland, T\u00fcrkiye, and the United States. All three of the\u00a0chief prosecutors have come from the United States.
\u201cFor the Kosovo Albanians, Serbs, Roma, and others who suffered these dreadful crimes, this judgment provides a measure of long-delayed justice,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cIt is a reminder that all victims of serious crimes committed during and after the Kosovo war deserve justice, regardless of the ethnicity or affiliation of the victim or perpetrator.\u201d
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